


you're the star & i'm the screen

by anemicaxolotl



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: (it's not that angsty it's pretty mild), Angst with a Happy Ending, Bromance to Romance, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post-Episode: s05e05 Geothermal Escapism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29478645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anemicaxolotl/pseuds/anemicaxolotl
Summary: He doesn’t know how to ask Troy for help from so far away, so finally he just says, “I watchedThe Life Aquaticyesterday,” and smiles at the way Troy’s nose crinkles.Or: Abed finds a way to tell Troy how he's feeling when they're apart.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 22
Kudos: 122





	you're the star & i'm the screen

**Author's Note:**

> I am once again thinking about the ways Troy and Abed stay connected when Troy is on his trip. That's it, that's the fic.

The first time he gets a Skype call from Troy, even though he hasn’t been gone that long, Abed is so relieved he feels like he could cry. Troy’s alive. He still wants to talk to Abed. It’s a sign things are going to be okay.

“Abed,” Troy says brightly, smiling like he always does when he says Abed’s name. And something about that hurts so badly, it pierces right into the softest, most vulnerable part of him. Troy is still out there in the world somewhere, living and smiling and saying Abed’s name, and it’s miraculous, but somehow it’s all wrong.

Troy notices his silence immediately and frowns at the screen. “Abed, is everything okay?”

Abed doesn’t know what to say. If Troy were here, he’d be able to sense exactly what Abed is feeling, all the grief and the confusion and the _loneliness_ his stupid malfunctioning clone body can’t seem to quell. But if Troy were here, Abed wouldn’t be feeling any of that to begin with. He’d just be happy.

He thinks of all the hours spent with Troy over the years, all the times he’d been happy without stopping to question why or consider how special that feeling was. He wishes he held on to it all a little more tightly. Maybe he would have if he had known how easily it could all be lost.

He doesn’t know how to ask Troy for help from so far away, so finally he just says, “I watched _The Life Aquatic_ yesterday,” and smiles at the way Troy’s nose crinkles.

“Why? You hate that movie. You always said it’s the worst thing Wes Anderson’s ever done, except–”

“Except _The Darjeeling Limited,_ right.” Abed nods. “Guess.”

“Guess why you watched a movie you hated? Uh, okay…” Troy laugh a little, then shrugs. “I don’t know, because it’s about ocean explorers and that’s basically what I’m doing right now?”

“Partially,” Abed says with a nod. “Also because I was thinking about our cardboard submarine. That was one of our better ideas throughout the years.”

“Yeah, that was awesome,” Troy agrees, eyes drifting up and off to the side as he reminisces. “It would’ve been cool if Pierce had made me travel in a submarine instead of a sailboat. But maybe when I get the money, you and I can buy a submarine and go exploring together.”

Abed ducks his head so Troy can’t see the ridiculous smile spreading over his face. “That’d be cool,” he says down to his keyboard. “Cool cool cool.”

*

Troy catches on pretty quickly to what Abed is doing, because reading Abed has always been one of his keenest talents, and no amount of ocean miles or lousy WiFi connections can change that.

He knows Abed likes having an opener, a concrete way to ease into conversation so he doesn’t have to flounder through the awkwardness that Skype puts between them. It’s easier than dealing with their emotions straightaway, and Troy finds that he likes it this way, too. If it were up to him, he’d probably be a sobbing wreck every time he started a call if he didn’t have a distraction to latch on to.

So when Abed starts their next phone call by saying, “I watched _Around the World in 80 Days_ last night,” Troy grins.

“Hmm, wonder why you picked that one?” he says teasingly, and feels a little thrill when Abed smiles back.

“I’m hope you’re being sarcastic now, because that one should be obvious.”

“It is obvious,” Troy agrees. “I can’t promise it’ll only take me eighty days, but I’m trying to do this as fast as I can.”

Abed looks a little guilty at that, Troy thinks. “You shouldn’t rush it. There’s still a ton of exposition before you even get to the climax, and that probably shouldn’t happen until the end of your trip, after you’ve gained enough wisdom to vanquish whatever enemies come your way…”

Troy smiles as Abed continues to describe the way Troy’s story should play out, his clever hands gesturing wildly and plotting out each step of the journey that should lead Troy around the world.

“Alright, fine,” Troy says after a while. “So no rushing the journey. But as soon as it’s over, I’m coming home, okay?”

He watches Abed fiddle with his sleeve for a moment before nodding, unable to meet Troy’s eye even through the screen. “Sure, Troy. Whatever you say.”

*

 _“Live Free or Die Hard,”_ Abed says by way of greeting, and Troy answers without missing a beat.

“That’s easy. Today’s the anniversary of the day we saw _A Good Day to Die Hard_ together.”

“Exactly. I wanted to honor the day with another _Die Hard_ film because _A Good Day to Die Hard_ is objectively the worst in the franchise. And it also just didn’t feel right to watch it without you. I…” Abed is quiet for a beat, trying to gather his thoughts, but somehow when he speaks again all that comes out is a desperate, “I miss you.”

He sees Troy’s eyes sadden in a way that’s almost imperceptible through the grainy video. He would have missed it entirely if it had been anyone but Troy, who he has come to know so well over the years Abed thinks he could feel his moods shift even in his sleep.

“I miss you too,” Troy says in a voice that sounds like a confession.

Abed stares at the screen, and they spend the better half of an hour just watching each other in silence.

*

It turns out Abed is occasionally wrong, because the climax of Troy’s journey happens way earlier than anyone expects it to.

 _"The Curse of the Black Pearl,"_ Abed says the second he picks up the phone, his voice high and quick. The tone kicks up something that swirls like a dust storm in Troy’s chest, something hovering halfway between guilt and affection.

“Too easy, man. Pirates, obviously. But before you ask, no, I did not get any treasure. Pirates aren’t really like the movies. Maybe more like _Captain Phillips_ than _Pirates of the Caribbean.”_

“Right.” Abed exhales sharply. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, me too,” Troy laughs. “You should tell the others I’m alright. I’ll call them tomorrow, but I don’t really feel like talking to them tonight.”

“Oh. Okay. Do you want me to hang up?” Abed asks quickly.

“No! No way. I only want to talk to you right now.”

“Oh.” Abed pauses. “Okay, good. I don’t want to share you yet.”

Troy can’t help the smile that overtakes his face as he lies back on the hotel bed, ready to answer all of Abed’s questions about the pirates and how he and LeVar escaped. He doesn’t leave out a single detail.

*

Sometimes Abed calls Troy through WhatsApp just on the off chance he's docked somewhere for the day and has WiFi access. On the third day in a row of trying, by some miracle, Troy answers.

“Hey, Abed!” He sounds happy as soon as he picks up the phone. “What’s going on?”

 _“Before Sunset,”_ Abed says quickly.

 _“Before Sunset?”_ Troy repeats, his voice laced with confusion. “I don’t think I’ve seen that one. Oh, wait, is that the one with the dude from _Gattaca?”_ He gasps then. “Wait, are you flying to Paris!?”

“I have a girlfriend.”

Abed hears all the air leave Troy’s lungs in a rush. “A girlfriend?”

“Her name is Rachel. She likes movies too. She’s…she’s really nice, Troy.”

“Oh. Okay, cool. That’s cool.”

“It’s cool?”

“Yeah,” Troy insists, his voice much higher than usual. “Why wouldn’t it be cool?”

Abed wonders if it was wrong to tell Troy something this big over the phone, because Troy is clearly upset and Abed doesn’t know how to fix it without calling it out and possibly embarrassing them both. “I don’t know,” he says finally. “Thanks, Troy.”

“Of course,” Troy says, and it’s quiet, but it sounds sincere. “I’m happy for you, buddy.”

Abed smiles and tries to feel happy, too.

*

Troy doesn’t talk to anyone from Greendale for a while, and he’s not really sure if it’s intentional or not. He still misses them all, of course, but no matter who he ends up talking to, the conversation somehow drifts to Abed. He should probably expect that, but it still hurts, especially the way mentions of Rachel are casually dropped into conversations.

Britta is the only one who lingers on the topic, trying to nudge Troy to some kind of conversation he doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready for. Jeff and Shirley tactfully avoid the subject, and Annie just hums and sighs until Troy changes the subject himself.

So he avoids contact until he can’t justify the radio silence anymore, and then he finally Skypes with Abed.

“Hi, Troy,” he says, quieter than usual.

“Hey, buddy!” Troy forces a cheery smile. “How’s it going?”

“Fine.” Abed fidgets with his sleeve and refuses to make eyes contact. “Hope everything’s going well with you.”

He’s going off script, Troy realizes, and something about that bothers him in a way he can’t really explain. “You, uh, watch any good movies lately?” he asks, maybe sounding a little desperate and maybe hoping Abed doesn’t notice.

“No.”

“No? What do you mean? You haven’t watched _anything_ lately?”

Abed is leaning against the headboard of his bed, and Troy thinks he looks so fucking tired. “Just haven’t been in the mood for anything, I guess.”

Troy has absolutely no idea what to say to that. All he can think is that fourteen million dollars is not nearly enough money to make up for everything he’s putting them through.

*

Time passes, Shirley leaves, no one hears from Troy, and Abed starts to get a very last-season vibe from the strangeness of it all. He talks to Annie about it and endures her quivering lip and Disney eyes because he knows, past the pity, he’ll eventually get some pretty sound advice, or at least the loving comfort he sorely needs.

“If you miss him, you can just talk to him,” she says kindly. “It doesn’t have to be a phone call or a video chat. You can just write him an email, and he’ll get to it when he gets to it.”

“It’s not just missing him,” Abed admits. “Annie, I…”

It’s harder to say than he expects, and he shakes his head, unable to get the words out.

“You what, Abed?”

He shakes his head again, looking at the wall behind her shoulder. “I don’t know how you ever got over him,” he finally says, before the lump in his throat makes speaking impossible.

“Oh, Abed,” she whispers, folding him into a sweet hug. He lets himself be held.

Later, he writes an email with no subject line. The message is brief: _I watched Alien_ _last night._ He hits send before he can talk himself out of it.

*

When Troy is finally able to access WiFi again, he reads Abed’s email approximately a thousand times before deciding to just call him. Despite the time zone difference, he answers, albeit on the very last ring.

 _“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,”_ he yawns before even saying hello.

That’s not at all what Troy was expecting. “Oh, uh…” He swallows. “Are you, uh, planning a trip to Hawaii?”

“No, I broke up with Rachel. So technically I was the Sarah Marshall in this case, but the movie felt appropriate anyway, given that it’s one of the quintessential breakup movies of the early 2000s."

“Huh. Makes sense.” Troy pauses before asking, “Are you okay?”

He can practically hear Abed shrug. “Yeah, I was the one that broke up with her. We were never going to work out long-term and I felt bad leading her on. We’ll probably stay friends though.”

Troy has about a million questions, starting with _Why do you seem totally fine about this breakup?_ and ending with _Are we ever going to talk about why things were so weird the last time we talked?_ But honestly, hearing Abed sound like his old, animated self again is such a relief that Troy doesn’t want to break whatever spell is holding them together in this moment.

He just fills Abed in on everything he’s been doing since they last spoke, how he’s inching closer to home every day, and tries to ignore how much his face hurts from smiling.

*

Time passes, and this time Abed is the one to leave, but he hears from Troy enough that the transition to LA doesn’t feel nearly as lonely as it should. He still hears from the remaining Greendale gang, too, even though they’ve mostly scattered so far from Greendale it feels like a misnomer to still call them that. He’s busy with work now, and eventually his life settles into a comfortable pattern. It’s not Greendale, but it’s something different, maybe just as good.

Then one day, he gets a call from Troy, and before he can even say hello, Troy says in a rush, _“The Wizard of Oz.”_

Abed opens his mouth to reply, then pauses, then tries again. “You watched _The Wizard of Oz?”_

This isn’t how it works. Troy is supposed to be the one guessing, and Abed doesn’t know what to do with this break from their routine.

“I did,” Troy replies, and Abed can hear his grin through the phone. It sends his heart pounding into overdrive, because he knows _The Wizard of Oz,_ and Troy wouldn’t be saying it if it wasn’t important. But it feels impossible after all this time, and if Abed is wrong, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to hold himself together.

“I don’t want to guess it,” he blurts out. “I want to hear you say it.”

He hears Troy take a deep breath. “Abed,” he says, “I’m docking in Los Angeles this Saturday. I’m coming home.”

*

Abed is staring out his apartment window when he sees Troy’s taxi pull up. He flies downstairs, and Troy barely has his bags out of the car before Abed throws himself at his best friend. He feels Troy wrap his arms around him, and it doesn’t take long for him to start crying into Abed’s chest. His sobs break Abed’s heart a little bit, but they might also be the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard, because the whole thing is so quintessentially _Troy,_ and it means he’s back.

And he’s _home._

When they pull apart, Abed grabs Troy’s face with shaking hands, and now that he’s here it feels a little contrived and over the top, but he can’t stop himself from rattling off a list of films:

_“The Notebook. Casablanca. When Harry Met Sally. Love Actually. Sixteen Candles. Moonrise Kingdom. Say Anything.”_

Troy wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and stares at Abed. “What…I don’t understand,” he breathes. “Did you watch all of those yesterday?”

“Well, yes,” Abed admits. “I couldn’t sleep. But that’s not really the important part.”

He can tell Troy knows what’s going to happen, because his eyes are wide and he looks a little bit like he did the first time he ever met LeVar Burton: utterly starstruck and totally speechless. But he manages to swallow and ask softly, “What do all those movies have in common?”

Quietly, suddenly realizing the enormity of what he’s about to say and hoping for all he’s worth that he’s not making a huge mistake, Abed says, “They’re all love stories. Troy…I’m in love with you.”

“Abed…”

Troy has a familiar but unreadable expression on his face, and Abed starts to panic, just a bit.

“I know this is a lot and I know you literally just got off a boat and we’re in the middle of the sidewalk and this is probably the worst time to do this, but I couldn’t wait any longer because I’ve been in love with you for years now, and I thought it was something I could live with and ignore if you didn’t want that, but having you leave and be away for so long made me realize I don’t want to live without you ever again unless that’s what you want…”

Troy’s hands move to cup Abed’s face, and he leans in to press their foreheads together. “I don’t want to be rude,” he says softly, “because your rambling is really adorable. But I feel like now would be a good time for the cut-you-off-with-a-kiss trope before I tell you I love you, too. Is that okay?”

“God, that’s all I’ve ever wanted,” Abed breathes, and Troy laughs, loud and joyful, as he leans in right there on the sidewalk to give Abed the movie-scene-ending kind of kiss they both deserve.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :-) as always I am being entirely incoherent on tumblr @ slutabed.


End file.
